NZ educational reviews and reforms 2018/2019

Apart from the reform of VET in NZ (see previous blog for overview), there are other accompanying pieces of work being undertaken to align the entire NZ education system. Included are the review of the National Certificate in EducationalAttainment (NCEA), the Careers System Strategy and proposed changes to the NZQualifications Framework

In summary, as prefaced by the Minister of Education and the Ministry of Education, a once in a lifetime opportunity to review and realign NZ education to the needs of the future.

For eh review of school systems, there is a proposal to end to 'tomorrow's school' model, whereby each school is governed by a local board of trustees, to oveview and collaborative approaches through a number of hubs. The major premise is to try to ameliorate the effects on schools, of the resourcing of local board of trustees as schools with better human resource capabilities are able to forge ahead, but schools with socio-economic challenges struggle. Consultations are now being undertaken, with concerns that everything will grind to a halt due to political 'grandstanding'.

The NCEA review, is also in progress, with the main worries centred around assessment issues.

Which brings us to the review of the NZ Qualifications Authority.  Changes being proposed to allow qualifications to be more relevant and future focused.

Four Proposals: Submissions closed in December last year.

1) Wider range of education products including microcredentials, training schemes, assessment standards, international and regional qualifications, professional credentials.

2) More explicitly embed transferable competencies into the NZQF. Examples are critical thinking, communication, collaboration and citizenship.

3) Address some technical issues in the NZQF including update of the level descriptors – in capturing Level 8 ‘bachelor with honours’ , clarifyin Level 7 ) which currently includes Bachelor, grad dip and grad certs but grade dip is not research based and does not have degree status. Level 4 for qualified trades person but it is different on other frameworks e.g. Irish / Australian go up to level 6). Clarify degree apprenticeships at level 7.

4) Make NZQF easier to use and more relevant to all stakeholders.

So all in, a very busy time at the Ministry of Education with the many reviews being undertaken. It is good to see a concerted approach to align the many sectors of education into a more cohesive entity. With so much happening all at the same time, the implementation stage will become a major challenge as each sector undergoes significant change. All in, it will be an interesting time ahead.